The traditional view of death as something evil and unnatural liad therefore no place in the thought of Jesus. He nowhere suggests the idea which St. Paul took over from the OT and elabor- ated in his theology, that death is the punishment of sin. This prevailing Jewish belief is indeed ex- pressly contradicted in the words concerning the slaughtered Galilaeans and the eii;hteen on wliom the tower of Siloam fell (Lk 13''^). Jesus there insists that death, even when it comes prema- turely and violently, is not to be regarded as a Divine judgment. Sin is punished, not l)y physical deatli in tliis world, but by a spiritual deatli here- after. This is doubtless the true interpretation of tlie warning, 'Except ye repent, ye .shall all likewise perish.' Destruction is in store for all sinners ; and the punishment cannot therefore consist in death by violence, which falls on few. Much less can it consist in natural death, from which the good can escape no more than the wcked.
While thus regarding death as nothing but one of the incidents in man's earthly existence, our Lord anticipates a time when it will be done away. In the perfected Messianic kingdom ' they cannot die any more' (Lk 20^). Tliose who survive until the Son of man returns in glory ' will not taste of death' (Mt 16^), since they will have entered on the new age in which it is abolished. Even in such passages, however, it is not suggested that death IS an evil. The idea is rather tliat it forms part of a lower, imperfect order of things, and that this will give place entirely to a higher. Those wlio inherit the kingdom cannot die, ' because they are equal unto the angels' (Lk 20^"), and have so entered on another condition, governed by different laws. The cessation of death is conjoined witli that of marriage (vv.^- ^^). As the marriage rela- tion is natural .and necessary to man's earthly state, but has no place in the life of higher spirits, so with death.
Jesus, it is thus evident, has broken away from the Jewish concejition, according to wliich the
death of the body possessed a roligious signilicaucu as the eft'ect of sin. His own idea of its spiritual import is of an altogether different nature, and can be gathered with sufficient clearness from certain explicit sayings. (1) The mllingness to endure death for His sake is the supreme test of faith (cf. 'Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of?' etc. [.Mt 20^ = Mk 1(F]; 'If a man hate not . . . his own life also,' etc. [Lk U'^']). (2) Death is the fixed limit appointed by God to all earthly pleasures and activities. The thought of it ought therefore to guard us against over-anxiety about the things of this world, and to keep us always watchful, and mindful of the true issues of life ('This night thy soul shall be required of thee ' [Lk 12^] ; parable of Rich Man and Lazarus [Lk le**"-])- (3) Above all, death marks the beginning of the true and eternal life with God. This higher life can be obtained only by sacrificing the lower, and sur- rendering it altogether, if need be, at the call of Christ (' He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it' [Mt 10'i' = 16=5, Mk 8» Lk 9^]).
In several Synoptic passages Jesus speaks of a death which is spiritual rather than physical. He recognizes that the mass of men are in a condition of moral apathy and estrangement from God, and out of this ' death ' He seeks to deliver them. His message to John the Baptist, ' The dead are raised up' (Mt lP = Lk 7~), would seem, in the light of the context, to bear this reference, as also the cliarge to the disciples, ' Raise the dead ' (Mt 10*). The same thought is expressed more unmistakably in the saying, 'Let the dead bury their dead' (Mt 8-' = Lk 9™), and in the words of the parable, '"This my son was dead and is alive again' (Lk 15^^*). Such allusions are not to be explained as simply figurative. As 'life,' to the mind of Jesus, consists in moral obedience and communion with God, so in the opposite' condition He perceives the true death. It involves that ' destruction both of soul and body' which is far more to be feared than mere bodily deatli.
The view represented by the Fourth Gospel gives a further development to this aspect of our Lord's teaching. Deatn as conceived by St. John is something wholly spiritual. The idea is en- forced in its full extent that physical death is only a ' taking rest in sleep,' and in no wise affects the real life (Jn ll'^"""). Lazarus, although he lias lain four days in the tomb, has never trulj' died ; for ' he that believeth in me, when he is dead, con- tinues to live' (ll-^-^*). The miracle by which he is ' awakened out of sleep' is meant to show forth, under the forms of sense, the inward and spiritual work of Jesus. He is 'the resurrection and the life.' He has come to raise men out of the state of death in which they find themselves, and to make them inheritors, even now, of the life of God.